ABSTRACT
The importance of the built environment in defining the character and behaviour of users has long been established. The architecture of any building is a reflection of the purpose the building is meant to fulfil. The prison system was introduced into the fabrics of society as a measure to instil justice and discipline. In recent times, the concept of rehabilitation has been introduced into the arena of prison architecture; placing emphasis on the need to create suitable environments that go beyond punishing offenders to influencing a change in their behaviour and re-introducing them into the society. This calls for architectural character which impact positively in the inmates and contributes to behavioural change. The architect has to resolve the basic problems of ease of supervision of the inmates, their security and control, with those of the usual architectural problems of function, circulation, ventilation and orientation, while at the same time ensuring that the building itself will reflect a spirit of enlightenment and humanitarianism which can contribute to the effectiveness of treatment programs for the inmates. With increasing human population, there is a consequent increase in the number of crimes and hence the number of prison inmates. It is no news that many prisoners leave the prison more hardened. The introduction of rehabilitative prison architecture will serve the purpose of reversing the trend of releasing unreformed prisoners into the society. The research evaluated the existing prison architectural character with a view to providing guidelines for the development of reformation. The study combined both quantitative and qualitative methods of research. Questionnaires were distributed to the selected prison facilities in Suleja and Kaduna (Open prison camp and Borstal training institution), visual survey, observation, and interview. The result from case studies states that only 40% of the require facilities are provided in two of the case studies visited 61.7% of the users agreed to the fact that Nigerian prisons are in a horrible state. As a result of the above indicated the influence of Architectural character on inmates is as important and can be noticed hence a proposal for the redevelopment of Kaduna open prison camp with prominence placed on the issues raised.